Continuum: Review: Season 1 Ep 1

Showcase, 27 May 2012

Inadvertently following escaping anti-corporate ‘terrorists’ from 2077 to 2012, security specialist Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) finds herself trying to defend the past in order to save her future…

This little-heralded new Canadian SF show riffs on The Terminator film series (or, if you wanted to be unkind, little remembered 1990s show Time Trax). The first half is intriguing enough, efficiently setting up a future when the corporations rule. Few TV shows have directly tackled the social effects of the current economic crisis, so it’s great to see Continuum incorporating current politics through a science fiction filter.

However, Continuum gets lost in the debut episode’s second half. The ‘freedom fighters’ of the future are suddenly ‘terrorists’ in our present, with the series heroine (Alias’s very capable Rachel Nichols) out to secure the repressive surveillance state future she’s accidentally escaped from. Politically, the show seems increasingly uncertain of where it stands…

Our future fugitive also seems to slip into a role with the police rather too easily, while her co-incidental hook-up with a youthful high-tech hacker (Erik Knudsen) stretches things a bit (especially when the connection between him and The X-Files’ William B. Davis’ future schemer is blatantly obvious).

Verdict: A tale of two halves, although interesting enough to give it a few more episodes to see what direction it goes in…

Episode 1 ‘A Stitch in Time’: 6/10

Brian J. Robb